Maltese is spoken on the island of Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea. Its basis is Arabic, which was brought to the island by Moslem conquerors in the 9th century. In the year 1090 the Arabs were driven out by Normans from Sicily, who introduced a laige number of Romance words into the vocabulary.

The Maltese Archipelago consists of the islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino and two other uninhabited islands, Cominotto and Filfia. The Maltese speak a very ancient language which is of great interest to linguists. Basically Semitic, it assimilated a large number of Romance words over the years, with the result that today it represents the fusion of two linguistic branches. This fact reflects the position of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea, halfway between southern Europe and North Africa.